Wednesday, May 26, 2010

The proceedings for 'Electromagnetic Phenomena and Health – A Continuing Controversy?', 10 September 2008, The Institute of Physics, London, UK, are now available at: http://iopscience.iop.org/1755-1315/10/1

Mayor Gavin Newsom's proposed legislation requiring cell phone retailersin San Francisco to disclose Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) values forradiation emitted by the cell phones they sell passed out of the CityOperations & Neighborhood Services Committee after a hearing today. Supervisors Carmen Chu and John Avalos voted to send it to the full Boardwith a recommendation in favor of its passage, while Supervisor SeanElsbernd voted no.

There was significant opposition to the legislation from the San Franciscosmall business community and the San Francisco Small Business Commissionvoted against taking legislative action in April. The wireless industry'smost powerful lobbying organization, CTIA, was also on hand to speakagainst the legislation.

However, Supervisor Chu, who was the swing vote on this particularCommittee, ultimately voted in favor after her concerns about the costsinvolved and the burdens on small businesses were addressed to hersatisfaction.

To read the legislation in its current form, which calls for a gradualroll-out commencing later this year, go to the following link:

(NBC) - When you hear the word radiation, you may think about a bomb or a way to make energy. Truth is, we're exposed to radiation almost every day without even realizing it, but are we being overexposed?

Just the word radiation alone can conjure up fears, hysteria, concern and all sorts of conspiracy theories.

We've seen the power of radiation after the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl in 1986 or the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II, incidents that have been linked to causing widespread cancer in those areas, but the fear and hysteria about radiation only gets ramped up when the focus points to the one thing today many would say they can't live without: their cell phones.

"That is a totally different type of radiation, it's at a totally different end of the spectrum and they really don't need to be talked about in the same breath but they do share the word radiation," Radiologist Dr. Leon Bell said.

So let's break down the science.

There are two different types of radiation. Ionizing radiation and non-ionizing. Dr. Bell said things like cell phones and microwaves use non-ionizing radiation, emitting a low-frequency of electromagnetic waves. Ionizing radiation can come from medical radiation like X-rays and CT-scans which can cause changes to cells in the body and can also increase the risk of cancer. Doctor Bell said the low-frequency waves coming from cell phones simply cannot cause molecular changes in the body leading to cancer. Cancer and medical radiation have stronger ties.

According to the National Council on Radiation Protection, Americans are exposed to seven times more medical radiation today than 20 years ago. Advancements in the medical field with digital imaging products like X-rays and CT-scans may have something to do with it.

"In many cases, the more radiation we give, the more information we can get," Dr. Bell said. "It's constant sliding scale to balance between the need to know and the need to avoid radiation."

But when does the need to know go too far? Last year, Becky Coudert was one of dozens of patients who were notified by an Alabama hospital about receiving "elevated levels" of radiation after getting a CT brain scan.

Coudert said in the weeks following her CT scan, she began losing her hair, having headaches, and memory loss.

Her hair grew back but she still wonders what's going on inside her body.

"We are not informed," Coudert said. "None of us know that we are getting so much, when we have a cat scan how dangerous it is."

Just to be clear, Coudert is not a patient of Doctor Bell nor does he speak for that Alabama hospital but he does offer some insight on medical challenges when it comes to the use of radiation.

"We work under an assumption that there is no absolutely safe level because no one knows where the threshold is between harmless amount of radiation and the extreme end, the amount of radiation people got at Chernobyl or Hiroshima or Nagasaki," Dr. Bell said.

The FDA is now investigating the events at that hospital and other instances across the nation of radiation overexposure to patients.

The FDA is already using its regulatory power to push medical imaging companies to install more safety features on their products, and maybe then, a prescribed dose of radiation will be the right dose every time.

Medical procedures like CT scans and radiation therapy used for cancer patients present both benefits and risks, but many won't deny the use of radiation in medicine has changed healthcare as we know it.

WEEP News

by: Martin Weatherall

As a Canadian independent foundation, WEEP acts as an umbrella organization and focuses on progressive initiatives that bring increased awareness, policy change, and entrepreneurial activity around the issues of safe Electro Magnetic emissions.

WEEP News is a service provided by WEEP to keep those interested in and affected by Wireless, Electric, & Electromagnetic Pollution, informed on a daily basis, of all the current issues and initiatives in the world today.